Just one in four Berlin apartments is affordable on an average income

For many years, Berlin was famously branded "poor, but sexy" - but the last decade has made it difficult for all but the affluent to find a comfortable home in the capital.  

According to a recent survey carried out by the Senate and obtained by the Berliner Morgenpost, middle-income households in Berlin face a dearth of affordable housing. 

The report found that, of around 60,000 property adverts on the market between July 2023 and June 2024, just 24 percent were within-budget for people on median incomes. 

When the Senate included 34,000 properties owned by the municipalities and housing operatives in its calculations, this number increased to 27.8 percent. Even with these affordable housing initiatives, more than 70 percent of Berlin's asking rents were out of reach for average earners. 

With strict rent controls in place in the city, the survey painted a picture of a two-class system: those on existing contracts had relative security, while newcomers were faced with limited options.

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What's 'affordable'? 

For a property to be deemed affordable, the cold rent must be no more than 27 percent of a household's net income. In simple terms, that means your rent before bills should be around a quarter, or less, of your income after taxes. 

Including extra bills like heating and maintenance, the government says that housing costs should come to no more of a third of a household's income.

When the study was carried out in 2023, the median net income for a household in Berlin was €2,575 per month. This varies depending on the size of the household, with median incomes for single people coming in at €1,800 and median incomes for four-person households set at €4,525. 

Affordable rents by income and property size

For the Senate report, researchers compiled data on asking rents from listings throughout Berlin. They then looked at the affordable rents for middle-income households of different sizes, and tried to find suitable properties in the capital that were within this range. 

The data revealed that one- and two-person households were likely to find around 10 percent of properties within their price range on the market.

However, four-person households were likely to face fierce competition on the market, with just 2.5 percent of rents for larger properties falling with in the affordable range. 

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Huge variation across districts

Unsurprisingly, the majority of affordable properties were to be found in Berlin's most far-flung suburbs, as opposed to the city centre. 

In the eastern borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, for example, 83 percent of properties fell within an acceptable price range, along with 59 percent of properties in nearby Lichtenberg.

Reinickendorf in the far north, meanwhile, and Spandau in the west, both had affordable properties quotas of 48 percent and 64 percent respectively. In Neukölln, the large southern district spanning from Kreuzberg in the north to the Brandenburg border in the south, around 42 percent of asking rents were affordable. 

Things became much tricker when looking in popular central districts. In the sought-after borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, just 13 percent of properties were affordable. The affordability rate was about 17 percent in Mitte and 20 percent in Charlottenburg. 

For the lowest income households i.e. those who earn just 60 percent of the median income, the situation looks even more grim.

This group is able to afford just one in 20 properties on the Berlin market, and just two percent of the properties for rent in Charlottenburg, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Mitte. Even in Marzahn-Hellersdorf, the cheapest of the Berlin districts, only 29 percent of properties are suitable for this group of renters. 

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To make matters worse, rising rents in the centre appear to be putting growing pressure on the once-affordable outer districts. In places like Lichtenberg and Reinickendorf, rents are rising the fastest year-on-year. 

Can a building offensive solve the problem? 

"The current housing needs report shows that the housing supply is not sufficient to meet the demand of the various target groups," the Senate Department for Urban Development concludes in its report, adding that state officials must do much more to boost construction.

In recent years, the Berlin Senate has been trying to turbocharge new homes in the capital with a range of measures, including quicker approvals and state subsidies.

However, the city is repeatedly falling short of its target for building 20,000 apartments each year. According to the latest housing report from the state-owned investment bank IBB, just under 16,000 flats were completed in 2023, and just 15,000 in 2024. 

Of these new homes, the majority were targeted at a more affluent clientele, with a much smaller proportion being built for lower-income households. 

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